Cheap Girls - My Roaring 20's
My Roaring 20’s With the '80s retreating further into the rear view, perhaps it's finally time to shitcan the guyliner and white pancake makeup of new- and dark-wave fascinations. Late-'80s alt-rock is a comparatively welcome replacement for all the gloomy would-be Ian Curtis and Robert Smith clones clogging the underground with their twitchy, synth-addled moodiness....
Lights - The Ice Pack
The Ice Pack You have to be extremely infatuated with a song to purchase an EP that contains seven versions of it. Sure, music fans often stick the same track on repeat for a few days (or weeks), trying to hear everything there is to hear and searching for just why that particular number is so...
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Pin Points And Gin Joints
Pin Points and Gin Joints The Mighty Mighty Bosstones seem to share several qualities with the spirits mentioned in the title of their eighth studio album, Pin Points And Gin Joints–aside from the bottles of Beefeater that appeared on the band's tour rider over the years. Like gin, lead vocalist Dicky Barrett's voice doesn't improve with...
Burning Empires - Burning Empires
Burning Empires Andy Hurley is best known to shrill-screaming tweens and pop-punk fans as drummer for pop-radio darlings Fall Out Boy, but hardcore nerds are more than willing to lecture you on his somewhat edgier past. Hurley's back catalog alone comprises a multitude of mosh-tastic metalcore acts who never really made it outside of the...
Jonah Matranga/Kevin Seconds - Split
Jonah Matranga/Kevin Seconds Split The 7-inch is more a curio favored by collectors and completists than the casual fan, so perhaps it's appropriate that one of Jonah Matranga's two songs on this split with Kevin Seconds is a novelty track. As the title suggests, “I've Always Wanted to Write a Song Commanding People To Dance!”...
Puscifer - C Is For (Please Insert Sophomoric Genitalia Reference Here)
Maynard James Keenan, singer for Puscifer, Tool and A Perfect Circle, isn't exactly controversy shy. Tool's 1996 release Ænima features a song titled "Hooker With A Penis," and the album art contains a picture of a contortionist reaching places that shouldn't be reached. But Puscifer's new digital EP is poised to challenge a new audience: fans of...
Various Artists - Protect 2: A Benefit For The National Association To Protect Children
Protect 2: A Benefit For The National Association To Protect Children The compilation is a cipher in the current music landscape. Where once they served a utilitarian purpose of exposing new bands or bringing attention to worthy causes, the internet has nearly killed the album as a viable musical entity. A generous swath of music...